A joint venture of the Department
of English at Virginia Commonwealth University and New Virginia
Review, Inc.

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NEW TO BLACKBIRD?

We have kept Blackbird structurally simple in order to emphasize the quality of its content and
to make reading, viewing, and listening to it as effortlesstechnologically
speakingas possible.

System RequirementsBlackbird is best viewed in a screen resolution of 800x600 pixels
or greater.

Menu StructureAll pages in Blackbird have six buttons across the top. Three lead to the current issue’s
basic genresPoetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction. One leads to
Gallery, whose innovative contents cross genres and vary from issue
to
issue. Another leads to the current issue’s Features, primarily audio
and video content added twice each month. And the last leads to Browse,
a page that offers various ways to read, view, and listen to Blackbird.

All pages in Blackbird also have a menu on
the left-hand side. This menu varies from page to page. On some pages,
such as this one, its links lead to areas that are primarily informativeEditorial
Policy, Submissions, Links, and so forth. On all pages within the genres
and Gallerycontributors’ notes, poems, stories, and the likeit
provides an alphabetical index of all contributors within that content
area so that you can quickly and easily move among pieces within a genre.

Streaming Audio and Video
Starting with v9n1, all audio and video content in Blackbird are streaming Flash files. Our new embedded format allows for a larger default size and with a fast internet connection, you can enlarge the video to full screen.

Printing
On all content pages we provide a version optimized for printing. Select
the “print version” icon in the upper right-hand corner
of the piece, and then print using your browser’s print functions.

Share (Add This)
A share button triggering the bookmarking and sharing service "AddThis" can be found on our left hand pages. On wide gallery pages, look for this at the footer under Contributor’s Notes.

Links that Open in Separate
Browser Windows
Some links in Blackbird—to sites outside of Blackbird,
for example—are
configured to open in separate browser windows.